when does a hen with chicks start laying again?

[Mom2Cool]

I've got a girl who just hatched a few chicks a couple weeks about & the other day hubby found a tiny egg in the coop. Now the other chickens have slowed down with egg production ever since the 2 hens with chicks went broody & so I thought maybe it could have been one of them but this egg was so small it was like an egg from a young pullet at the start of laying... Any thoughts here is this the hen with chicks starting to lay again?

 

[KellyHM]

It usually takes my broodies about 2 months after they hatch chicks to start laying again.

 

[Mom2Cool]

yes well that's what I would have expected about 2 months but this egg was like SO small I thought it must be from her. The weather has been crazy here & we'd been having all that rain (people are ready to jump off bridges it's been so wet I think) & so I thought maybe that could have something to do with it too.

 

[azelgin]

My GLW laid again only 3 weeks after hatching out her chicks. It was a normal size egg and also big a surprise. She decided she was done being a mother at three weeks and has been laying regularly ever since.

 

[KellyHM]

Why would you think the small egg is from her? If she was laying before she shouldn't be laying pullet eggs.

 

[Mom2Cool]

I dunno I guess I thought that maybe after a hatching it was like starting from scratch as a pullet??? And/or why would ANY of the hens be laying a egg that small? they've been laying since Dec. & always a good size egg except at the start when they gave me a few smaller pullet sized eggs. While they'd all slowed down the sizes of the eggs have all been consistant. Anyway I can't imagine a reason any of them would give a smaller egg except that the broody girl is maybe restarting. It was very odd.


azelgin when your hen decided she was done being a hen she just went back to her roost at night & started laying? And were the chicks all ok to just become part of the flock again or where they all separate from the flock?

 

[azelgin]

Quote:
The mom and chicks were in with the other chickens from about 1 week of age on. At three weeks old, the chicks would sleep in a pile on the floor and mom returned to the roost. I didn't know she was laying yet until I found her in a nest box. The chicks were not happy about mom leaving them, but got over it after a few days. I let a banty hen raise three standard size chicks and she is laying again after about 4 weeks now. She bailed on hers at about three weeks too. She wants nothing to do with them and pecks them when they come around her. Tough love.

 

[Mom2Cool]

"tough love" ROFL I guess I could have taken a lesson from the hens.... I'm hoping my chicks will blend in like that too.

 

[KellyHM]

I think maybe you got what people refer to as a "fart" egg. It happens occasionally when a hen lays a very small egg that sometimes does not have a yolk. It could have been any of them.

 

[SunshineSilkies]

Quote:
I love it Kelly!!!